The House on Mango Street

Cisneros, S. (2009). The house on Mango Street.  New York: Vintage Contemporaries.

The House on Mango Street was first published in 1984. It was republished in 2009 for the 25th anniversary edition. The book is written in vignette form. The story is about a girl dealing with finding her place in the world she lives in. She does not want to be locked into stereotypes of how her culture believes she should live her life. The 2009 edition has an introduction written by the author that explains were she was in her life when she wrote the book. After reading the book I think there was a lot of parallels of the authors life in the book. I wish I had read the book first and the introduction was at the end of the book. I had trouble separating the character form the author. 

This book would be a great book to use as a book club read with girls in high school who are struggling to break from traditional family expectations or societal expectations. I read this book and participated in a discussion group with my University and through the book discussion I was able to find parallels of my own growing up though the story. I highly recommend this book for an all girls book club and possibly include the counselor in this book club. The emotions that this book will bring to the surface during the discussions might lend themselves to the counselors expertise.